COUNCILLOR Nick Wallis says that “heritage is everywhere you look in Darlington”(Echo, Sept 2), yet he and his Labour council colleagues are committed to closing one of the best known heritage site in Darlington: the Crown Street Library.

In the same issue, retail consultant Graham Soult, tells us that Darlington has “oodles of character” yet he is pictured sitting on another council folly, the “Pedestrian Heart” scheme on High Row. The scheme had stunning granite sets and a marvellous water feature and was a stunning sight, yet the council did not foresee the running costs so the sets are now loose and out of place and the water feature lies dry and silent.

The council is wringing the character from the heart of Darlington, yet is so certain of its own infallibility that it is proposing to build and rent out offices and factory units when many are already lying empty in the town and its environment.

Darlington councillors need to examine their motives for these proposals and indeed their ability to understand the underlying economic situation that is at the root of the dismal state of the retail and economic heart of the town. They should ask themselves whether they are actually equal to the job of regenerating it.

I and many others would suggest they are not.

Robin Rutherford, Darlington